MrCanary

Thanks Pierre... But I have to say that in checking out some dates for October, their prices are cheaper than Transmanche.

Saga? No thank you! Mention the common male over 50's condition of prostate cancer and they treat you like a leper! So I told them good-bye and went to Norwich Union who were excellent, sympathetic and very reasonably priced.

I have made a number of posts in recent times, praising Transmanche ferries and their Newhaven/Dieppe route, but yesterday could well have been the final straw in my love affair... I actually got fed up to the back teeth with Newhaven as a port some time ago. Is there anywhere on this planet with less atmosphere than that ferry terminal? And many of the staff are the most rude 'jobs worths' I have ever come across. So, I was thrilled when Transmanche/LD launched the Dover/Dieppe route. But alas, it did not pay and was quickly dropped with my latest booking being transferred back to the Newhaven route... Two weeks ago we suffered the staff at Newhaven as we headed to France. What a rude man he is - the one who tells you what lane to go in! And then yesterday, although I arrived for departure from Dieppe two and a half hours ahead of time and was about fifth in the queue, I was punted somewhere up in the roof of the car deck and became almost the last person off from this very full ferry. Then we joined the end of the massive queues to be checked by the most serious, customs officers in the world! Each and every car was inspected and oh, so slowly... From being allowed onto the car-deck of the ferry to driving out of the port took just three minutes short of one hour!! I have finally realised that had I have used Eurotunnel, I would have been back in Norwich before I was actually allowed onto that bloomin' car deck!! OK - rant over... Not having used Eurotunnel before, any comments please?

Yes, Xenon headlights do provide a flat dipped beam and, as such, UK registered cars do not need beam deflectors. In fact, there are an increasing number of non-Xenon lights that do not need deflectors. For example, I have a UK registered C4 Picasso and that does not need them. As for changing ordinary headlamps to Xenon, I am not a technician, but I believe it is an expensive operation that could require changes to the wiring...

Frederick - you refer to the UK's swine flu? How has the UK got the blame for that? I thought it is worldwide, having started in Mexico?

The rude Germans have to learn other languages, because if they did not, nobody would ever speak to them! As for French folk, speaking from personal experience, I find them generally very polite and friendly - certainly no worse than Brits.

Benjamin - LOL - brilliant description! I have used both the Paris and Rouen routes and much prefer the Rouen journey. And yes, it can get a bit tedious, but the A.28 is just so easy and so traffic-free... Whichever you choose, bon voyage!

I challenged an amount that the LD Lines computer wanted to add on for a change in my booking. I made the challenge by telephone, they listened to my points and then gave me a full refund!

No - not through an agent - direct. The mistakes seem to occur if I make (and pay for) any changes to the original booking... But having said that, I am still happy with the actual service Transmanche provide. (And the ship used on the Dover routes is not an old one, it was launched in 2006...)

Hi Pierre - that route is Transmanche with the booking service provided by LD Lines. There is the one Transmanche ship doing two or three trips back and forth between Dover and Boulogne and then the same ship does one overnight run to Dieppe and back...

I have used Transmanche Ferries for a few years now and have always been very happy with the service provided - until... Until they linked themselves up with LD Lines and now regular mistakes (most commonly duplicate charging) are becoming the norm. Has anybody else noticed this?

...pension now that he was getting just one euro for one pound. "Enough," he said, "No more, for 'tis not as sweet now as...

Sorry if I have missed this information in any other threads, but can anyone tell me if there has been much/any snow in department 37 (Indre et Loire) especially in the Loches area? Thanks... Mel

          LOL !!

  That has to be a fixed video. Sorry to be a sceptic, but I don't believe what it purports to show. Clever cinematography! But I would be very happy to be wrong...

Ian - it wasn't until I got to your post that I realised the others were that old - thanks for waking me up! In our area of France (Indre et Loire), or at least in our village, landowners seem quite unconcerned about people walking respectfully on their property. But I think that is just reflective of the very pleasant and happy community where we have our maison secondaire. Just correcting something Iceni said when this thread started, trespass in England is no longer purely a civil offence. Police can, and regularly do, get involved.

Thanks Clark - that is really helpful...

Does anybody have any experience of the Chartres to Tours road, please? Is it a good quality road and are there any bottlenecks etc? Thanks...

Will - I apparently will get my refund, thanks. The problem? I like to make sure things get changed rapidly. In my part of the world, Archant write news stories about people or organisations who make mistakes of this kind - even when it is a genuine mistake such as this undoubtedly is. But in at least one of their newspapers, they still run the stories. As such, people who live in glasshouses and all that...!

FAO Forum Admin... As it was your post that encouraged me to belatedly order a calendar, do you have any comment please?

tegwini - obviously it will vary depending on the areas compared. In iceni's original post in this thread, he referred to diesel being 0.94 at his local Leclerc's on 1st January. On that same date, and today, most of the garages in my area of Norwich are selling diesel at 94.9p per litre. With an exchange rate of about one for one, that makes the prices about the same as far as I am concerned!

Steve... Interestingly though, there has been no change in the UK taxes of petrol and diesel since the prices rocketed and subsequently tumbled. Yet, before they went up, petrol was about 4p per litre cheaper than diesel in England and now it is 12p to 14p cheaper. How can that be explained?

dave - interestingly and amazingly, petrol and diesel are now cheaper in England than France!

Looks good to me... I've signed up!

sheldonrobbo - certainly not overloaded in my case. I take far more stuff out to France than I bring back. The problem is the design of the ramps at Newhaven. They do not have a curved shape, but are more like bricks (straight up, flat on top, straight down again - this design is actually illegal in public places). When wheels come off the ramp, they drop straight down and invariably break mudflaps, which are very expensive on a new car.